Living Lab 5

Crop-livestock Integration

Goal: Develop Conservation Agriculture solutions with crop-livestock integration to enhance soil health

Where:  Slovenia 

Climate: Cold semiarid climate; Hot-summer Mediterranean climate; Warm-summer Mediterranean climate

Crops: Annual crops, forage crops, pastures, permanent grassland 

Soil health challenges: Loss of soil organic matter; soil erosion; soil compaction; biodiversity loss.  

No. of experimental sites: 20.  

No. of potential Lighthouses:  2 sites to be identified.

Who are we working with? Academia, industry, government, and civil society.

Which EU Mission Soil objectives are addressed?

2: Increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks.  


5: Prevent erosion.  


6: Improve soil structure for soil biota and crops.  


8: Increase soil literacy. 

Living Lab 5 Coordinators

Leader: Rok Mihelič, University of Ljubljana

Co-leader: Simon Ograjsek, Slovenian Association for Conservation Agriculture

Living Lab 5 innovations

We are testing the performance of these solutions for crop-livestock integration to enhance soil health.

Soil management

  • Sown cover crops/groundcovers
  • Organic amendments
  • Minimum tillage in organic farming
  • Minimal soil disturbance/permanent soil cover

Agronomy management

  • Intercropping, mixed cropping
  • Enhance diversity of crop rotations
  • Adapted plant nutrient strategies (NPK,
    micro nutrients, pH)

Weed control

  • Adapted plant protection measures

Green infrastructure

  • Multifunctional field margins/buffer zones
  • Biodiversity structures

Livestock and pasture management

  • Grazing
  • Adapted crop rotation for enhancing self
    sufficiency in animal feed
  • Permanent grassland (establishing rules of Conservation Agriculture in grassland)

IT solutions

  • Precision farming (Auto-guidance, VRA)
  • Modelling (digital twins, remote sensing)

Are you based in Slovenia and interested in getting involved in our Living Lab?

Get in touch to find out more about how to collaborate with us.

 

Contact your local Living Lab:

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